Mitt Liv I Oz

Anna mejlade o fragade om jag kan komma pa nagra bra fordomar australier har om svenskar.

Kom inte pa nagot sa jag gjorde vad man bor gora nar man behover svar pa nagot; googlade.

Hittade denna artikeln skriver av nagra studenter.

Haller ni med? Vad har ni stott pa mer for fordomar om svenskar?

4 stereotypes about Swedes, do you agree with them?

“The Swedes are gay”

This stereotype is from our eastern neighbors in Finland.

During our research about it we have discovered that the Finnish people don’t think that all Swedish men are homosexual, because the “gay-word” is a synonym for feminine. S

o, Finland thinks they have more masculine men than we have in Sweden. Why do they think so? Well, we have revealed some reasons.

First we have weapons, war and pronunciation.

The Finnish say that Sweden hasn’t got war for so many years, which they have had in Finland, so our Swedish men aren’t as brave and bold as they.

They also seem to think that weapons create status. And because we have strong laws about weapons in Sweden and few weapons circulating in the society (at least officially) our Swedish men don’t have as much status as a Finnish weapon-wearing man, the Finnish think. Finally Finland thinks they have a more powerful language and pronunciation.

The Swedish pronunciation is feminine, they say, and well, there’s nothing we can do about that, except disagree and create a discussion.

We tried to see this from a totally different point of view and we did find a metro sexual theory.

To be metro sexual is accepted in Sweden and some celebrities has even maid it famous. This style is not a question about being gay or not, it’s just superficial. It’s a style you use when you pick your clothes in the morning and how well you take care of your body. Maybe you go to a solarium, colour your hair and use a moisturizer.

This is common in Sweden and it had been said that the Swedish men are better dressed then the Finnish men and this can cause a connection between a homosexual style, because we all think that a homosexual man is careful with his appearance. Maybe the Finnish don’t connect this behavior with the metro sexual style, and of course, if that’s the case, we have a misunderstanding and the stereotype comes up.

“Swedes don’t say much, they are silent”

This stereotype is from Holland and how this came up we also have some theories about.

First we have to say that the facts we took, is mostly about the Finnish people. How can we do this, you think? Well, according to Sixten Korkman, Finland and Sweden is difficult to se a difference between in an international approach. Well, here are the theories: the language, small-talk and the way of living (literally speaking).

We start out with the language, and both the Finnish and the Swedish language has different endings on the words instead of adding words. This can result in few words during a conversation. It’s also known in Finland that it’s not nice to talk if you don’t have anything important to say.

We have discussed this between us, the writers, and we don’t think it’s like this in Sweden. We often talk about the weather and things that’s not important and we most Swedish people would do what it takes just to avoid the embarrassing silence in a conversation. This results in unnecessary conversation, which the Finnish doesn’t seem to have, at least not in the same size as us.

Well, even in this stereotype we wanted to se it through a different point o view. Here it was through the narrow way of living in Holland. In Sweden we have approximately 23 persons living in an m2 while Holland has 395 persons. This cause that people in Holland goes to Sweden in vacation or even move to us.

They love the space and the nature. This in its turn causes the stereotype, because these people doesn’t move to the Swedish big cities, they move high up in the north of Sweden where the people is few and also the language. People in the north doesn’t talk as much as the others in the big cities. The north-people may have the nearest neighbor in a few Swedish miles (1 mile= 100km) so they don’t talk much.

“Sweden has rules about everything and Swedes do not question authority”


This is a stereotype from our close neighbors in Denmark. Even if you may think we are much alike, being so close geographically, that’s not really the case.


In Denmark the rules an legalizations concerning alcohol is a lot less strict than in Sweden. In Sweden you have to be 20 years old to buy liquor, for example, which is quite old compared to the age limit of 16 in Denmark (recently changed from 13). And even when you’re 20, in Sweden you have to go to special liquor stores, mostly not open at weekends and never at nights. The tax for any kind of alcohol also is a lot higher in Sweden.

As a result of this, a big part of the Swedish population travel to Denmark only to buy cheap beer, making the Danish picture of the Swedes a little weird. We are not all alcoholics on day-trips over seas.

Apart from the alcohol part, there are different regulations concerning a lot of things like drugs and prostitution, which is something that is a huge morally taboo in Sweden and makes us think that the Danish people have almost no rules at all, and of course also works the other way: they think we have rules about everything.

Apart from the rules and laws, we also differ from our neighbors mentally. In Sweden we are, as we have discussed earlier here on the CCR-Blog, kind of afraid of conflicts and no big fans of arguments. In Denmark, on the other hand, they have more of a questioning attitude, and kind of think that there may be laws, but they don’t necessarily need to be followed, there may be other ways.

“Swedes get bored from long-term relationships and change partners every 5 or 10 years”


This is a stereotype with its roots in Spain, where they for some reason think that Swedish people are incapable of committing to a longer, maybe lifetime, relationship. As we studied this stereotype, we found that there actually was some truth in it, since the divorce ratio in Sweden year 2002 was as high as 54% of al marriages, compared to the Spanish more reasonable 15%. That is a huge difference, so it’s not surprising that they might be shocked.


A reason for the difference in divorces might be religion. Sweden is a really secularized country, and it is not stigmatizing to be a divorcee at all. The marriage is not at all as “holy” as it probably is in more religiously oriented nations, like maybe Spain.
Since Spain is a catholic country, the Spanish have a different religious doxa than we have, and if you’re a catholic you see the marriage as something made by God and not possible for humans to overturn.

Another reason that might make the Spanish think of us as promiscuous and not able to stick to one (wo-)man could be the expanded vacationing in Spain that a lot of Swedish young people do.


Different parts of Spain is popular and cheap vacation spots where the young Swedes go in their 20s to party, tan, drink and be a little more “wild and crazy” than at home. The side of the Swedish personality the Spanish might see is maybe not really the normal one, which probably could be a reason for this a little exaggerated stereotype.